10. What then sayest thou? It is the Only Son Himself That speaketh; the Only-Begotten Son speaketh in the Gospel: the Word Himself hath given us the words, we have heard Himself saying, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do." Now then the Father doeth that the Son may see what to do; and nevertheless the Father doeth nothing but by the Son. Assuredly thou art confused, thou heretic, assuredly thou art confused; but thy confusion is as from taking hellebore, that thou mayest be cured. Even now thou canst not find thine own self, thou dost even thyself condemn thine own judgment and thy carnal view, I think. Put behind thee the eyes of the flesh, raise up what eyes thou hast in thine heart, behold things divine. They are men's words it is true thou hearest, and by a man, by the Evangelist, by the Gospel thou hearest men's words, as a man; but it is of the Word of God thou hearest, that thou mayest hear what is human, come to know what is Divine. The Master hath given trouble, that He might instruct; hath sown a difficulty, [3767] that He might excite an earnest attention. "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do." It might follow [3768] that He should say, "For what things soever the Father doeth, the like doeth the Son." This He doth not say; but, "What things soever the Father doeth, the same doeth the Son likewise." The Father doeth not some things, the Son other things; because all things that the Father doeth, He doeth by the Son. The Son raised Lazarus; did not the Father raise him? [3769] The Son gave sight to the blind man; did not the Father give him sight? [3770] The Father by the Son in the Holy Ghost. It is the Trinity; but the Operation of the Trinity is One, the Majesty One, the Eternity One, the Coeternity One, and the Works the Same. The Father doth not create some men, the Son others, the Holy Ghost others; the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost create one and the same man; and the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, One God, createth him.
11. You observe a Plurality of Persons, but acknowledge the Unity of the Divinity. For because of the Plurality of Persons it was said, "Let Us make man after Our image and likeness." He did not say, "I will make man, and do Thou attend when I am making him, that Thou too mayest be able to make another." "Let Us make," He saith; I hear the Plurality; "after Our image;" [3771] again I hear the Plurality. Where then is the Singularity of the Divinity? Read what follows, "And God made man." [3772] It is said, "Let Us make man;" and it is not said, "The Gods made man." The Unity is understood in that it was said, "God made man."
12. Where then is that carnal view? [3773] Be it confounded, hidden, brought to nought; let the Word of God speak to us. Even now as godly men, as believing already, as already imbued with faith, and having gotten some attainment [3774] of understanding, turn we to the Word Himself, to the Fountain of light, and let us say together, "O Lord, the Father doeth ever the same things as Thou; for that whatsoever the Father doeth, by Thee He doeth it. We have heard that Thou art the Word in the beginning; [3775] we have not seen, but believed. There too have we heard what follows, that all things were made by Thee.' [3776] All things then that the Father doeth, He doeth by Thee. Therefore Thou doest the same things as the Father. Why then didst Thou wish to say, The Son can do nothing of Himself'? For I see a certain equality in Thee with the Father, in that I hear, What things soever the Father doeth, the same doeth the Son;' I recognise an equality, hereby I understand, and comprehend as far as I am able, I and My Father are One.' [3777] What meaneth it, that Thou canst do nothing, but what Thou seest the Father do? What meaneth this?"
13. Peradventure He would say to me, yea say to us all: "Now as to this that I have said, The Son can do nothing, but what He seeth the Father do;' My Seeing' how dost thou understand? My Seeing,' what is it? Put aside for a while the form of the servant which He took for thy sake. For in that servant's form our Lord had eyes and ears in the Flesh, and that human form was the same figure of a Body, such as we bear, the same outlines of members. That Flesh had come from Adam: but He was not as Adam. So then the Lord walking whether on the earth or in the sea, as it pleased Him, as He would, for whatever He would, He could; looked at what He would; He fixed His eyes, He saw; He turned away His eyes, and did not see; who followed was behind Him, whoso could be seen, before Him; with the eyes of His Body, He saw only what was before Him. But from His Divinity nothing was hid. Put aside, put aside, I say, for a while the form of the servant, look at the Form of God in which He was before the world was made; in which He was equal to the Father; hereby receive and understand what He saith to thee, Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.' [3778] There see Him if thou canst, that thou mayest be able to see what His Seeing' is." "In the beginning was the Word." How doth the Word see? Hath the Word eyes, or are our eyes found in Him, the eyes not of the flesh, but the eyes of godly hearts? For, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." [3779]
14. Christ thou seest Man and God; He doth manifest to thee the Man, God He reserveth for thee. Now see how He reserveth God for thee, who doth manifest Himself to thee as Man. "Whoso loveth Me," saith He, "keepeth My commandments; whoso loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him." [3780] And as if it were asked, "What wilt Thou give to him whom Thou lovest?" "And I will manifest Myself," saith He, "to him." What meaneth this, Brethren? He whom they saw already, promised that He would manifest Himself to them. To whom? Those by whom He was seen, or those also by whom He was not seen? Thus speaking to a certain Apostle, who asked to see the Father, that it might suffice him, and said, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us" [3781] --Then He standing before this servant's eyes, in the form of a servant, reserving for his eyes when [3782] deified [3783] the Form of God, saith to him, "Have I been so long time with you, and have ye not known Me? He that seeth Me, seeth the Father also." Thou askest to see the Father; see Me, thou seest Me, and dost not see Me. Thou seest what for thee I have assumed, thou dost not see What I have reserved for thee. Give ear to My commandments, purify thine eyes. "For whoso loveth Me, keepeth My commandments, and I will love him." To him as keeping My commandments, and by My commandments made whole will I manifest Myself.
15. If then, Brethren, we are not able to see what the "Seeing" of the Word is, whither are we going? what Vision it may be with too great haste are we requiring? why are we wishing to have shown us what we are not able to see? These things accordingly are spoken of which we desire to see, not as what we are able already to comprehend. For if thou seest the "Seeing" of the Word, peradventure in that thou seest the "Seeing" of the Word, thou wilt see the Word Himself; that the Word may not be one thing, the "Seeing" of the Word another, lest there be Therein anything joined, and coupled, and double, and compacted. For It is something Simple, of a Simplicity ineffable. Not as with a man, the man is one thing, the man's seeing another. For sometimes a man's seeing is extinguished, and the man remains. This it is of which I said that I was about to say something which all would not be able to understand; the Lord even grant that some may have understood. My Brethren, to this end doth He exhort us, that we may see, that the "Seeing" of the Word is beyond our powers; for they are small; be they nourished, perfected. Whereby? By the commandments. What commandments? "He that loveth Me, keepeth My commandments." [3784] What commandments? For already do we wish to increase, to be strengthened, perfected, that we may see the "Seeing" of the Word. Tell us, Lord, now what commandments? "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another." [3785] This charity then, Brethren, let us draw from the plentifulness of the Fountain, let us receive it; be nourished by it. Receive thou [3786] that whereby thou mayest be able to receive. Let charity give thee birth, let charity nourish thee; charity bring thee to perfection, charity strengthen thee; that thou mayest see this "Seeing" of the Word, that the Word is not one thing and His "Seeing" another, but that the "Seeing" of the Word is the Very Word Himself; and so perhaps thou wilt soon understand that that which is said, "The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do," is as if He had said, "The Son would not be, if He had not been born of the Father." Let this suffice, Brethren; I know that I have said that which perhaps, if meditated upon, may develop itself to many, which oftentimes when expressed in words may chance to be obscured. [3787]
[3739] Meritum.
[3740] Isa. vii. 9, Sept.
[3741] 2 Pet. i. 19.
[3742] Substantia; hupostasis.
[3743] Sperantium, as St Augustin uniformly reads, Tract. 79 and 95, in Joh. de pecc. mer. ii. 31. St, Ambrose and St. Jerome have the pass.
[3744] Heb. xi. i.
[3745] Vim.
[3746] Rom. i. 20.
[3747] Ps. xxxii. 9.
[3748] Secreta.
[3749] Publica.
[3750] Matt. xiv. 21.
[3751] John ii. 9.
[3752] Artificem.
[3753] Ecclus. vi. 37.
[3754] Ps. xvi. 7, Sept. (xvii. 7, English version).
[3755] John i. 1.
[3756] The punctuation of the reprint of the Ben. has been followed, "Jamne vides jam, inquam, vides? carnem interrogo, sed carnem ostendo." The Ben. pointed, "vides carnem," but noted Locus mendosus. The meaning may be, "It is of His Birth in the Flesh that I enquire, but I point out the mode of that Birth, i.e. of a Virgin."
[3757] Ps. xix. 5.
[3758] John i. 1.
[3759] John v. 19.
[3760] Ps. cxvi. 10.
[3761] Sinceriter.
[3762] Movit.
[3763] Strepitum.
[3764] Artifices.
[3765] John i. 3.
[3766] Eph. i. 5.
[3767] Quæstionem.
[3768] Consequens.
[3769] John xi.
[3770] John ix.
[3771] Gen. i. 26.
[3772] Gen. i. 27.
[3773] Intentio.
[3774] Merito.
[3775] John i. 1.
[3776] John i. 3.
[3777] John x. 30.
[3778] Phil. ii. 6.
[3779] Matt. v. 8.
[3780] John xiv. 21.
[3781] John xiv. 8.
[3782] Deificati.
[3783] Vid. St. Athanasius, Treatise against Arians, Oxford edit. Nicene Def. ch. iii. 12, § 14 and Disc. 1, ch. xi. § 39, p. 336, and note c. Vide St. Augustin, Ps. 49, § 2.
[3784] John xiv. 21.
[3785] John xiii. 34.
[3786] Cape per quod sis capax.
[3787] See Tract. 18 and 20 in Joh.
Sermon LXXVII.
[CXXVII. Ben.]
On the words of the Gospel, John v. 25,"Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the son of God; and they that hear shall live,"etc.; and on the words of the apostle, "things which eye saw not," etc., 1 Cor. ii. 9
1. Our hope, Brethren, is not of this present time, nor of this world, nor in that happiness whereby men are blinded that forget God. This ought we above all things to know, and in a Christian heart hold fast, that we were not made Christians for the good things of the present time, but for something else which God at once promiseth, and man doth not yet comprehend. For of this good it is said, "That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him." [3788] Because then this good, so great, so excellent, so ineffable, fell not in with man's understanding, it required God's promise. For what hath been promised him, man blind of heart doth not now comprehend; nor can it be shown to him at present, what he will one day be to whom the promise is given. For so an infant child, if he could understand the words of one speaking, when himself could neither speak, nor walk, nor do anything, but feeble as we see he is, unable to stand, [3789] requiring the assistance of others, were able only to understand him who should speak to him and tell him, "Lo, as thou seest me walking, working, speaking, after a few years thou shall be as I am;" as he considered himself and the other, though he would see what was promised; yet considering his own feebleness, would not believe, and yet he would see what was promised. But with us infants, as it were, lying in this flesh and feebleness, that which is promised is at once great and is not seen; and so faith is aroused whereby we believe that we do not see that we may attain [3790] to see what we believe. Whosoever derideth this faith, so as to think that he is not to believe in that he doth not see; when that shall come which he believed not, is put to shame: being confounded is separated, being separated, is condemned. But whoso shall have believed, is put aside at the right hand, and shall stand with great confidence and joy among those to whom it shall be said, "Come, blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom which hath been prepared for you from the beginning of the world." [3791] But the Lord made an end when He spake these words, thus, "These shall go into everlasting burning, but the righteous into life eternal." [3792] This is the life eternal which is promised us.